Miguel Torres Released by UFC for Twitter Rape Joke

The UFC released bantamweight Miguel Torres after the former WEC champion joked on Twitter about a “rape van,” UFC President Dana White told SI.com on Thursday.

“Miguel Torres has been cut from the UFC and his career with us now is over,” White said. “There’s absolutely nothing I could say to make any sense of that. And the fact that he even thinks that’s funny or that’s a joke, it disturbs me. It bothers me. Again, you’re dealing with a guy that’s a smart guy, that owns his own business, that’s been one of the top fighters in the world forever. And I cut him today. He’s no longer with the UFC.”

“If a rape van was called a surprise van, more women wouldn’t mind going for rides in them. Everyone likes surprises,” Torres’ reportedly wrote. The Tweet has since been deleted.

Torres (39-4) topped Nick Pace at UFC 139 just over two weeks ago for his second UFC win in three fights following a narrow loss to Demetrious Johnson in May and successful debut over Antonio Banuelos in February.

Torres’ comment followed similar statements by Forrest Griffin, who recently Tweeted “Rape is the new missionary,” and Rashad Evans, who told Penn State alum Phil Davis at Wednesday’s UFC on Fox press conference that he would “put [my] hands on you worse than that dude did them other kids at Penn State.” Neither Griffin nor Evans were cut, though White said Thursday that he spoke to Evans about his comments and called them the “dumbest thing you could say.”